cloudeater are a pretty extraordinary band out of Atlanta, Georgia and with the release of their debut full length album ‘Sun and Sidearm’ in September, the band have put together this video for ‘Hardly Wait’, the 3rd song on the album.

Their sound often feels like a hybrid between the panicky, hectic rhythms of some of Thom Yorke’s solo stuff and the brooding atmosphere of Massive Attack. cloudeater’s music also features some intense stormy buildups, just have a look at some of the wave shapes of the tracks below and see the kind of dynamics these guys put into their music.

Directed by Philippe Grenade, ‘I Was A Bomb’ is the debut music video of the band Silent Rider, a downtempo, bass heavy group.

The black and white narrative, shot on the RED in New York’s Appalachia, follows a man and woman as they trek the landscape in search of some enigmatic form of nourishment. After what seems like a dreary and fruitless journey, they stumble upon what they’ve been tracking, culminating in a haunting sequence of events.

Frontman Benjamin Gibbard has admitted being somewhat embarassed about the dark nature of earlier album ‘Narrow Stairs’ and hinted that the lighter nature of this album came from living a more stable, married life. ”I’m so proud of this album that at this point I don’t care if people don’t like it.”

“I don’t feel like we went all ‘Kid A’ on everyone. But there are moments on this record where we looked at each other and said, ‘Oh, man, fans of ‘The Photo Album’ are going to wonder what’s going on here.’”

Released 31st May 2011.

We Are Transient isn’t officially released for another 2 months so only the first 57 seconds can be heard on bandcamp at the moment (pretty uncool). However, I’ve embedded an earlier single entitled ‘Big Love’ that was released in June 2010 which has been made available for free download (pretty cool).

It’d be fair to say We Are Transient has a much heavier feel to their earlier singles such as ‘Big Love’ and ‘Out Of The Rabbit Hole’ in which electro aspects featured more predominantly in the music and had a streak of Crystal Castles or even The xx about them.

Any Londoners reading this, Delooze will be playing at 93 Feet East on the 14th of July.

Released 11th July 2011.

The Civilization EP will be the most significant release since Justice’s ‘Cross’ back in 2007. Scheduled for release on June 6th, it is currently unclear what other tracks the Civilization EP will contain but it is known it features a remix from Mr. Oizo. There’s also word of a currently untitled second album set for release in autumn. Exciting times.

If shattered monuments raining down on wildebeest in a post apocalyptic, gravity reversed setting is something you’re into, then you’ll love this immense work of CGI mastery.

To me, this latest single lacks the drive and edginess we saw in their earlier stuff from the ‘Strange House’ and ‘Primary Colours’ era. It’s still a decent sound though and I’m pretty hyped about Skying being released in July as you so often can’t judge an album from the first single, especially with a band like The Horrors.

The track listing for ‘Skying’ has since been announced and the band have a couple of lined up over the next couple of months across the UK and Europe.

01. Changing the Rain 02. You Said 03. I Can See Through You 04. Endless Blue 05. Dive In 06. Still Life 07. Wild Eyed 08. Moving Further Away 09. Monica Gems 10. Oceans Burning

Bon Iver, Bon Iver’s progress has been tied into the construction of a new recording studio created in his hometown of Wisconsin and this album features some unusual track names corresponding to cities such as Lisbon OH, Perth and Hinnom, TX from previous tours. At the forefront, as always, are Justin Vernon’s archetypal harmonized vocals underpinned by his sublime acoustic chord patterns but with the mandatory occasional synth pad/electronic beat in the background we’ve come to expect.

Bon Iver is also set to tour again this year: a North American tour in late July/early August alongside The Rosebuds and a European tour in October/November with Kathleen Edwards. Tickets are already on sale and can be found through these links.

The reason I think this EP is worthy of a feature is because these artists have done what any good remixers should, they’ve made the song their own. You can really hear their own unique musical stylings in each of these tracks from Hong Kong In The 60′s stripped out (almost MIDIish), yet detailed, wistful sound emanating through in ‘Air Filter’ to ‘Shooting Horses’ big beat, somewhat tropical feel being applied to ‘Croydon’, a song with an entirely different time signature to the original. It’s easy to see that a lot more work has gone into these remixes than someone sampling away with their computer in a bedroom one evening as we’re so often seeing at the moment.

It’s taken me a while to get around to this one (released 22nd November 2010) but it’s still an awesome remix EP and it’s still free to download at 320kbps from bandcamp.

A band I’ve been meaning to feature on this blog for well over a year now, Hong Kong In The 60s finally released their debut album ‘My Fantoms’ digitally on the 2nd of May and will also release it physically on June 6th. Influenced by early electronic pop, 1960s Chinese music and European film soundtracks, the 12 tracks include bittersweet pop songs, dreamlike instrumentals and even excerpts from a mouse opera for children.

Hong Kong In The 60s have made a song from the album ‘You Can Take A Heart But You Can’t Make It Beat’ has been made available for free download from here.

Youth Gone – Les Sins

Lina is accompanied by B side Youth Gone as featured above. Les Sins has a vaguely 80s feel, one of beaches and poorly exposed photographs. It’s an interesting change of pace from this character and it’s looking as though Bundick will diversify his sound further yet. Chaz is currently touring as Toro Y Moi supporting Foals on a UK tour.

Released 18th November 2010.